Before I begin, I am going to attempt to clear my guilt by announcing that I am not studying, obviously, and as usual, I should be. First step is admitting you have a problem. Sorry this is so long! Feel free to skip around if you're bored.

Time for updates! I feel bad that my posts (okay, post) haven't been more legit and informative, but things are so busy all the time! I'll give an overview of the things I might write about if I were a better blogger and that I would talk your ear off about if you asked.

Thing You Need to Know About College: Holidays will take on a different form when you get to college. For instance, now that I've lived through a college Halloweekend, Halloween may be my new favorite holiday. If you know any college students, you can guess why. I was Batman and my roommate was Robin (see picture 1). We ARE really adorable, thank you!

Registration for second semester is here. I cannot believe it's time for that already. More on my schedule(s) some other time.

I am doing terribly in Anatomy & Physiology- one of basically three classes I'm taking. Just because I'm writing about it, for the record, doesn't mean it's okay. This is very very not okay, in case I have any future or prospective students out there who need clarification.

This past weekend, I visited George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and got to see my best friend from home. I mean classic best friend. Since second grade we've been yapping, giggling, cackling, whispering, talking on the phone for hours, going on idiotic adventures, wasting endless hours we'll never get back doing anything or nothing, ogling, and growing up together. We didn't go to high school together which almost certainly made the separation easier when it was time for her to college five hours away. That's not to say it's not hard to adjust to having to make pretty extensive plans to see each other instead of just showing up at the other's house; leaving friends, at least for me, is a big deal, and I am very grateful for the opportunities I have to keep in touch with and see them. My trip to D.C. was exciting and fun! I felt like a grownup but it was easy and made me look forward to taking more trips. The main thing that sticks out, aside from getting to see Olivia, is the stark contrast it painted between Rutgers and other colleges, particularly like somewhere like GWU. I have never been one to get homesick, and as much as I love being with Olivia and spending time with her new friends, I was homesick for Rutgers. Almost everything we did (which I enjoyed!) made me very sure that we are both in the right place: D.C. is home for Olivia and is lucky to have her there, and Rutgers is home for me and I hope, somehow, will be for the better because I'm here.

Currently, as I write this in Livingston Dining Commons, the two boys at the table next to me are discussing with great detail some girl's butt. This is revolting and I hate boys. To any male students/prospective students: being in college surrounded by other disgusting college boys does not make it okay to be one. DON'T!

I got a new Expository Writing teacher. This has several implications, the first and most important of which is that I LOVED MY EXPOS TEACHER. He was nothing short of adorable. His name was James and he had an English accent which made the funny, slightly inappropriate things he said tinted with an unexpected irony. He was easy to listen to and a good teacher. He was, in fact, the first English teacher I have ever liked, having always hated my English classes. In addition to the class's devastation over losing James as our teacher, we were told frustratingly little about the situation ("Your teacher was very ill,") and are genuinely concerned for him. Also aggravating is that somebody must have told the English department administration that we are nine years old. We have been told that "We are all going to go through this transition together, and it WILL be okay. Brendon is a bit of a specialist in transitions, and he is here to help you." Brendon is our new Expos teacher. He gives homework and says our grades are inflated and doesn't have an English accent and, not to be mean, is definitely less adorable than James. PRO about new expos teacher situation= this story: There is a very nice, hardworking girl in our class who was the leader of James' fan club. Thursday, when we came into class and Brendon was there waiting to introduce himself, this girl came in a little later than usual and cut him off in the middle of his first sentence and demanded very skeptically, "WHERE is James?". This made me simultaneously like and pity both the girl and Brendon. The drawback that I should, as a conscientious student, be most concerned about is this "transition"'s impact on our grades and the standard to which our mid-semester work will now be held. We shall see how this goes. Mostly, I miss James.

Housing next year- SO EXCITED about this one! I don't know if I've mentioned, but I love my roommate. We did random and it just worked out perfectly. (This is why I love hearing bad-roommate stories from other people so much and still think they're funny, not having any traumatic experiences of my own yet.) Last week two girls from our building approached us asking if we'd room with them next year. HELL YES. It's going to be a crazy house(/apartment/dorm/cardboard box) but it will be great. In addition to looking forward to two MORE awesome fun roommates, I am delighted to spend another year with my adorable and great roommate and very appreciative that, for whatever reason, she tolerates living with me.

The day of my first Stats exam (Warning: this is not a good story), I got to the Food Science Building on Cook several hours early to sit in the little cafe there called Dudley's (it's cute and the food is quite good, actually) and study. After an hour or so I looked up to give my eyes a rest and noticed a boy sitting at the table next to mine that I recognized from class and accidentally made eye contact, and before I could stop myself, allowed my dork instincts to take over and stared at my lap. Upon realizing the level of social ineptitude I had just displayed I looked up again to smile or wave, at which point this boy was no longer looking at me, so back to my lap it was as I felt my face begin to pink AND saw, out of the corner of my eye, the boy look up presumably in response to my looking at him again. Without looking up I very un-gracefully picked up my stuff and shuffled over to his table and began to ask if he was in Stats, as he began to ask if I was studying, and we began an impressive game of word-dance where we repeatedly talked over each other and then stopped, trying to allow the other to speak and not exchanging any actual information. Eventually I just sat down across from him without a word and we studied together. When it was time to take the exam we bid each other good luck and as I was leaving I felt a twinge of regret that I would not get to talk to this boy again since we did not exchange information and the class has over a hundred students in it. My only chance of seeing him again, though, was to go to class, and thus began my second-wind Stats attendance. Now, three weeks later, I thank Stats class for the boy I'm dating. It's sort of like the opposite of a Cady Heron in Mean Girls situation. ... So, boys and girls, go to class. If nothing else, maybe you'll get a date.

Just tuned in to surroundings again; table neighbors have moved on to discussion of other female body parts.

Looking forward to this weekend! Although I'm probably not getting out much, if at all tonight, because I need to study. My friend from high school is visiting Friday night, Saturday is my dad's birthday and I'm going to try to go home for a litle bit, and Saturday night I'm going to a Masquerade Ball at the Zimmerli Art Museum! (This caught my attention as an excellent opportunity to rewear a prom dress.)